The Ruby Knight (9 page)

‘It's the common practice, once the siege engines have weakened the fortifications.'

‘After the assaulting force has taken heavy casualties, they normally fall back, don't they?'

‘That's been my experience.'

‘Gerrich's men will
not
fall back. They will continue their attack until they overwhelm the castle.'

‘How can you be so sure?'

‘You remember the figure in the black robe I pointed out to you, My Lord?' Sparhawk said.

‘Yes. It seemed to cause you some concern.'

‘With good reason, My Lord. That's the creature that's been pursuing us. It's called a Seeker. It's not human, and it's subject to Azash.'

‘Beware of what you say, Sir Sparhawk,' Patriarch Ortzel said ominously. ‘The Church does not recognize the existence of the Styric Gods. You are treading very close to the brink of heresy.'

‘Just for the purposes of this discussion, let's assume that I know what I'm talking about,' Sparhawk replied. ‘Putting Azash aside for the moment, it's important for you and your brother to understand just how dangerous
that thing out there really is. It will be able to control Gerrich's troops completely, and it will hurl them against this castle until they succeed in taking it.'

‘Not only that,' Bevier added bleakly, ‘they will pay no attention to wounds that would incapacitate a normal man. The only way to stop them is to kill them. We've met men under the Seeker's control before, and we had to kill every last one of them.'

‘Sir Sparhawk,' Alstrom said, ‘Count Gerrich is my mortal enemy, but he's still an honourable man and a faithful son of the Church. He would not consort with a creature of darkness.'

‘It's entirely possible that the count doesn't even know it's there,' Sephrenia said. ‘The whole point here, however, is that we're all in deadly peril.'

‘Why would that creature join forces with Gerrich?' Alstrom asked.

‘As Sparhawk said, it's been pursuing us. For some reason, Azash looks upon Sparhawk as a threat. The Elder Gods have some ability to see into the future, and it's possible that Azash has caught a glimpse of something he wants to prevent. He's already made several attempts on Sparhawk's life. It's my belief that the Seeker is here for the express purpose of killing Sparhawk – or at the very least preventing his recovering Bhelliom. We must leave, My Lord, and quickly.' She turned to Ortzel. ‘I'm afraid, Your Grace, that we have no choice. We're compelled to resort to the Arts of Styricum.'

‘I will not be a party to that,' he said stiffly. ‘I know that you are Styric, Madame, and therefore ignorant of the dictates of the true faith, but how dare you propose to practise your black arts in my presence? I am a Churchman, after all.'

‘I think that in time you may be obliged to modify your views, Your Grace,' Ulath said calmly. ‘The militant
orders are the arm of the Church. We receive instruction in the secrets so that we may better serve her. This practice has been approved by every Archprelate for nine hundred years.'

‘Indeed,' Sephrenia added, ‘no Styric will consent to teach the Knights until approval is given by each new Archprelate.'

‘Should it come to pass that I ascend the throne in Chyrellos, that practice shall cease.'

‘Then the west will surely be doomed,' she predicted, ‘for without these Arts, the Church Knights will be helpless against Azash, and without the Knights, the west will fall before the hordes of Otha.'

‘We have no evidence that Otha is coming.'

‘We have no evidence that summer is coming either,' she said drily. She looked at Alstrom. ‘I believe I have a plan that may effect our escape, My Lord, but first I'll need to go to your kitchen and talk with your cook.'

He looked puzzled.

‘The plan involves certain ingredients normally found in kitchens. I need to be certain they're available.'

‘There's a guard at the door, Madame,' he said. ‘He will escort you to the kitchen.'

‘Thank you, My Lord. Come along, Flute.' And she went out.

‘What's she up to?' Tynian asked.

‘Sephrenia almost never explains things in advance,' Kalten told him.

‘Or afterwards either, I've noticed,' Talen added, looking up from his drawing.

‘Speak when you're spoken to,' Berit told him.

‘If I did that, I'd forget how to talk.'

‘Surely you're not going to permit this, Alstrom,' Ortzel said angrily.

‘I don't have much choice,' Alstrom replied. ‘We
absolutely must get you to safety, and this seems to be the only way.'

‘Did you see Krager out there too?' Kalten asked Sparhawk.

‘No, but I imagine he's around somewhere. Somebody's got to keep an eye on Adus.'

‘Is this Adus so very dangerous?' Alstrom asked.

‘He's an animal, My Lord,' Kalten replied, ‘and a very stupid one. Sparhawk's promised that I get to kill Adus if I don't interfere when he goes after Martel. Adus can barely talk, and he kills for the sheer pleasure of it.'

‘He's dirty and he smells bad too,' Talen added. ‘He chased me down a street once in Cammoria, and the odour almost knocked me off my feet.'

‘You think Martel might be with them?' Tynian asked hopefully.

‘I doubt it,' Sparhawk said. ‘I think I nailed his foot to the floor down in Rendor. It's my guess that he set things up here in Lamorkand and then went to Rendor to hatch things there. Then he sent Krager and Adus back here to set things in motion.'

‘I think the world would be better off without this Martel of yours,' Alstrom said.

‘We're going to do what we can to arrange that, My Lord,' Ulath rumbled.

A few moments later, Sephrenia and Flute returned.

‘Did you find the things you need?' Sparhawk asked.

‘Most of them,' she replied. ‘I can make the others.' She looked at Ortzel. ‘You might wish to retire, Your Grace,' she suggested. ‘I don't want to offend your sensibilities.'

‘I will remain, Madame,' he said coldly. ‘Perhaps my presence will prevent this abomination from coming to pass.'

‘Perhaps, but I rather doubt it.' She pursed her lips
and looked critically at the small earthen jar she had carried from the kitchen. ‘Sparhawk,' she said, ‘I'm going to need an empty barrel.'

He went to the door and spoke with the guard.

Sephrenia walked to the table and picked up a crystal goblet. She spoke at some length in Styric, and with a soft rustling sound, the goblet was suddenly filled with a powder that looked much like lavender sand.

‘Outrageous,' Ortzel muttered.

Sephrenia ignored him. ‘Tell me, My Lord,' she said to Alstrom, ‘you have pitch and naphtha, I assume.'

‘Of course. They're a part of the castle's defences.'

‘Good. If this is to work, we're going to need them.'

The soldier entered, rolling a barrel.

‘Right here, please,' she instructed, pointing to a spot away from the fire.

He set the barrel upright, saluted the baron and left.

Sephrenia spoke briefly to Flute. The little girl nodded and lifted her pipes. Her melody was strange, hypnotic and languorous.

The Styric woman stood over the barrel, speaking in Styric and holding the jar in one hand and the goblet in the other. Then she began to pour their contents into the barrel. The pungent spices in the jar and the lavender sand in the goblet came spilling out, but neither vessel emptied. The two streams, mixing as they fell, began to glow, and the room was suddenly filled with star-like glitterings that soared, firefly-like, and sparkled on the walls and ceiling. Minute after minute the small woman poured on and on from the two seemingly inexhaustible containers.

It took nearly half an hour to fill the barrel. ‘There,' Sephrenia said at last, ‘that should be enough.' She looked down into the glowing barrel.

Ortzel was making strangling sounds.

She put the two containers far apart on the table. ‘I wouldn't let these two get mixed together, My Lord,' she cautioned Alstrom, ‘and keep them away from any kind of fire.'

‘What are we doing here?' Tynian asked her.

‘We must drive the Seeker away, Tynian. We'll mix what's in this barrel with naphtha and pitch and load the baron's siege engines with the mixture. Then we'll ignite it and throw it in amongst Count Gerrich's troops. The fumes will force them to withdraw, temporarily at least. That's not the main reason we're doing it, however. The Seeker has a much different breathing apparatus from that of humans. While the fumes are noxious to humans, to the Seeker they're lethal. It will either flee or die.'

‘That sounds encouraging,' he said.

‘Was it really all so very terrible, Your Grace?' she asked Ortzel. ‘It's going to save your life, you know.'

His face was troubled. ‘I had always thought that Styric sorcery was mere trickery, but there was no way you could have done what I just saw by charlatanism. I will pray on this matter. I will seek guidance from God.'

‘I wouldn't take too long, Your Grace,' Kalten advised. ‘If you do, it could be that you'll arrive in Chyrellos just in time to kiss the ring of the Archprelate Annias.'

‘That must never happen,' Alstrom declared sternly. ‘The siege at the gates is
my
concern, Ortzel, not yours. Therefore I must regretfully withdraw my hospitality. You will leave my castle just as soon as it's convenient.'

‘Alstrom!' Ortzel gasped. ‘This is my home. I was born here.'

‘But our father left it to
me. Your
proper home is in the Basilica of Chyrellos. I advise you to go there at once.'

‘We'll need to go to the highest point in your castle, My Lord,' Sephrenia said after the Patriarch of Kadach had angrily stormed from the room.

‘That would be the north tower,' he replied.

‘And can one see the besieging army from there?'

‘Yes.'

‘Good. First, however, we must give your soldiers instructions on how to proceed with this.' She pointed at the barrel. ‘All right, gentlemen,' she said crisply, ‘don't just stand there. Pick the barrel up and bring it along, and whatever you do, don't drop it or get it near any fire.'

Her instructions to the soldiers manning the catapults were fairly simple, explaining the proper mixture of the powder, naphtha and pitch. ‘Now,' she went on, ‘listen very carefully. Your own safety depends on this. Do not set fire to the naphtha until the last possible instant, and if any of the smoke blows in your direction, hold your breath and run. Under no circumstances breathe any of those fumes.'

‘Will they kill us?' one soldier asked in a frightened voice.

‘No, but they'll make you ill and confuse your minds. Cover your noses and mouths with damp cloths. That may protect you a bit. Wait for the baron's signal from the north tower.' She tested the wind direction. ‘Hurl the burning material to the north of those troops on the causeway,' she told them, ‘and don't forget to throw some at those ships in the river as well. Very well then, Baron Alstrom. Let's go to the tower.'

As it had been for the last several days, the sky was cloudy, and a brisk wind whistled through the unpaned embrasures of the north tower. Like all such purely defensive constructions, the tower was severely utilitarian. The besieging army of Count Gerrich looked oddly ant-like, a mass of tiny men with armour glinting the colour of pewter in the pale light. Despite the height of the tower, an occasional crossbow bolt chinked against its weathered stones.

‘Be careful,' Sparhawk murmured to Sephrenia as she thrust her head out of one of the embrasures to peer at the troops massed before the gate.

‘There's no danger,' she assured him as the wind whipped at her hooded white robe. ‘My Goddess protects me.'

‘You can believe in your Goddess all you want,' he replied, ‘but your safety is
my
responsibility. Have you any idea of what Vanion would do to me if I let you get hurt?'

‘And that's only after
I
got through with him,' Kalten growled.

She stepped back from the embrasure and stood tapping one finger thoughtfully against her pursed lips.

‘Forgive me, Madame,' Alstrom said. ‘I recognize the necessity of chasing off that creature out there, but a purely temporary withdrawal of Gerrich's troops won't really do us all that much good. They'll return as soon as the smoke dissipates, and we still won't be any closer to getting my brother safely away from here.'

‘If we do this right, they won't return for several days, My Lord.'

‘Are the fumes that powerful?'

‘No. They'll clear off in an hour or so.'

‘That's hardly time enough for you to make good your escape,' he pointed out. ‘What's to prevent Gerrich from coming back and continuing the siege?'

‘He's going to be very busy.'

‘Busy? With what?'

‘He's going to be chasing some people.'

‘And who is that?'

‘You, me, Sparhawk and the others, your brother, and a fair number of men from your garrison.'

‘I don't think that's wise, Madame,' Alstrom said critically. ‘We have secure fortifications here. I don't propose to abandon them and risk all our lives in flight.'

‘We're not going anywhere just yet.'

‘But you just said -'

‘Gerrich and his men will think they're pursuing us. What they'll actually be chasing, however, will be an illusion.' She smiled briefly. ‘Some of the best magic is illusion,' she said. ‘You trick the mind and the eye into believing wholly in something that's not really there. Gerrich will be absolutely convinced that we're trying to take advantage of the confusion to bolt. He'll follow with his army, and that should give us plenty of time to slip your brother away to safety. Is that forest on the horizon fairly extensive?'

‘It goes on for several leagues.'

‘Very good. We'll lead Gerrich in there with our illusion and let him wander around amongst the trees for the next few days.'

‘I think there's a flaw here, Sephrenia,' Sparhawk said. ‘Won't the Seeker come back just as soon as the smoke clears? I don't think an illusion would deceive it, would it?'

‘The Seeker won't come back for at least a week,' she assured him. ‘It will be very, very ill.'

‘Should I signal the troops manning the catapults?' Alstrom asked.

‘Not yet, My Lord. We have other things to do first. Timing is very important in this. Berit, I'll need a basin of water.'

‘Yes, ma'am.' The novice went towards the stairs.

‘Very well, then,' she continued. ‘Let's get started.' She patiently began to instruct the Church Knights in the spell. There were Styric words Sparhawk had not learned before, and Sephrenia adamantly insisted that each of them repeat them over and over until pronunciation and intonation were absolutely perfect. ‘Stop that!' she commanded at one point when Kalten tried to join in.

‘I thought I could help,' he protested.

‘I know just how inept you are at this, Kalten. Just stay out of it. All right, gentlemen, let's try it again.'

Once she was satisfied with their pronunciation, she instructed Sparhawk to weave the spell. He began to repeat the Styric words and to gesture with his fingers. The figure that appeared in the centre of the room was vaguely amorphous, but it did appear to be wearing Pandion black armour.

‘You didn't put a face on it, Sparhawk,' Kalten pointed out.

‘I'll take care of that,' Sephrenia said. She spoke two words and gestured sharply.

Sparhawk stared at the shape before him. It was much like looking into a mirror.

Sephrenia was frowning.

‘Something wrong?' Kalten asked her.

‘It's not too hard to duplicate familiar faces,' she replied, ‘or those of people who are actually present, but if I have to go look at the face of everybody in the castle, this could take days.'

‘Would these help?' Talen asked, handing her his sketch pad.

She leafed through the pages, her eyes widening as she turned each page. ‘The boy's a genius!' she exclaimed. ‘Kurik, when we get back to Cimmura, apprentice him to an artist. That might keep him out of trouble.'

‘It's only a hobby, Sephrenia,' Talen said, blushing modestly.

‘You do know that you could make far more as a painter than as a thief, don't you?' she said pointedly.

He blinked, and then his eyes narrowed speculatively.

‘All right. Now it's your turn, Tynian,' Sephrenia told the Deiran.

After each had created a mirror image of himself, she led them to an embrasure overlooking the courtyard. ‘We'll build the large illusion down there,' she told them. ‘It might get a little crowded if we tried to do it up here.'

It took them an hour to complete the illusion of a mass of armed and mounted men down in the courtyard. Then Sephrenia went through Talen's sketch pad again and put a face on each figure. Then she made a broad sweep of her arm, and the images of the Church Knights joined the illusion below.

‘They aren't moving,' Kurik said.

‘Flute and I will take care of that,' Sephrenia told him. ‘The rest of you will need to concentrate to keep the images from breaking up. You'll have to hold them together until they reach that forest over there.'

Sparhawk was already sweating. Building a spell and then releasing it was one thing. Holding one in place was quite something else. He suddenly realized how much strain Sephrenia was bearing.

It was early afternoon by now. Sephrenia looked through the embrasure at Count Gerrich's troops. ‘All right,' she said. ‘I guess we're ready. Signal the catapults, My Lord,' she said to Alstrom.

The baron took a piece of red cloth out from under his sword-belt and waved it out of the embrasure. Below, the catapults began to thud, hurling their burning missiles over the wall and into the midst of the besieging army while other engines showered the ships in the river.
Even from this distance, Sparhawk could hear the soldiers coughing and choking on the dense cloud of lavender smoke coming from the burning balls of pitch, naphtha and Sephrenia's powder. The smoke rolled across the field in front of the castle, sparkling with that firefly glitter. Then it engulfed the knoll where Gerrich, Adus and the Seeker were standing. Sparhawk heard an animal-like screech, and then the black-robed Seeker burst from the smoke, flogging its horse mercilessly. It seemed unsteady in its saddle, and it was holding the edge of its hood tightly across its face with one pale claw. The soldiers who had been blocking the road leading from the castle gate came reeling out of the smoke, coughing and retching.

‘All right, My Lord,' Sephrenia said to Alstrom, ‘lower the drawbridge.'

Alstrom signalled again, this time with a green cloth. A moment later, the drawbridge boomed down.

‘Now, Flute,' Sephrenia said, and began to speak rapidly in Styric even as the little girl raised her pipes.

The mass of illusory men in the courtyard, who had until now been rigidly immobile, seemed to come to life all at once. They rode out through the gate at a gallop and plunged directly into the smoke. Sephrenia passed her hand over the basin of water Berit had brought to the tower and peered intently into it. ‘Hold them, gentlemen,' she said. ‘Keep them intact.'

A half-dozen of Gerrich's soldiers who had escaped from the smoke stood coughing, retching and digging at their eyes on the causeway leading away from the castle. The illusory army rode directly through them. The soldiers fled screaming.

‘Now we wait,' Sephrenia said. ‘It's going to take a few minutes for Gerrich to get his wits together and realize what seems to be happening down there.'

Sparhawk heard startled shouts coming from below and then bellowed commands.

‘A little faster, Flute,' Sephrenia said quite calmly. ‘We don't want Gerrich to catch up with the illusion. He might begin to grow suspicious if his sword goes through the Baron here without any effect.'

Alstrom was staring at Sephrenia in awe. ‘I would not have believed this possible, My Lady,' he said in a shaking voice.

‘It did turn out rather well, didn't it?' she said. ‘I wasn't entirely positive I could pull it off.'

‘You mean -'

‘I've never done it before, but we can't learn without experimentation, can we?'

On the field below, Gerrich's troops were scrambling into their saddles. Their pursuit was disorganized, a chaos of galloping horses and brandished weapons.

‘They didn't even think to charge that open drawbridge,' Ulath noted critically. ‘Very unprofessional.'

‘They aren't thinking very clearly just now,' Sephrenia told him. ‘The smoke does that to people. Are they all clear of the area yet?'

‘There are a few still floundering around down there,' Kalten advised. ‘They seem to be trying to catch their horses.'

‘Let's give them time to get out of our way. Continue to hold the illusion, gentlemen,' she said, looking into her basin of water. ‘It's still a couple of miles to those woods.'

Sparhawk clenched his teeth. ‘Can't you speed things up a bit?' he asked her. ‘This isn't easy, you know.'

‘Nothing worthwhile is ever easy, Sparhawk,' she told him. ‘If the images of those horses start to fly, Gerrich is going to get very, very suspicious – even in his present condition.'

‘Berit,' Kurik said, ‘you and Talen come with me. Let's
go down and get the horses ready. I think we all might want to leave in a hurry.'

‘I'll go with you,' Alstrom said. ‘I want to talk with my brother before he leaves. I'm sure I've offended him, and I'd rather have us part friends.'

The four of them went on down the stairs.

‘Just a few minutes longer now,' Sephrenia said. ‘We're almost to the edge of the woods.'

‘You look as if you just fell into a river,' Kalten said, glancing at Sparhawk's sweaty face.

‘Oh, shut up,' Sparhawk said irritably.

‘There,' Sephrenia said finally. ‘Let it go now.'

Sparhawk let out an explosive breath of relief and released the spell. Flute lowered her pipes and winked at him.

Sephrenia continued to look into her basin. ‘Gerrich's about a mile from the edge of the trees,' she reported. ‘I think we should let him get well into the woods before we leave.'

‘Whatever you say,' Sparhawk replied, leaning wearily against a wall.

It was about fifteen minutes later when Sephrenia set her basin on the floor and straightened. ‘I think we can go down now,' she said.

They descended to the courtyard where Kurik, Talen and Berit had the horses. The Patriarch Ortzel, stiff-lipped and pale with anger, was with them, and his brother was at his elbow. ‘I shall not forget this, Alstrom,' he said, pulling his black ecclesiastical robe tighter about him.

‘You may feel differently after you've had time to think about it. Go with God, Ortzel.'

‘Stay with God, Alstrom,' Ortzel replied, more out of habit, Sparhawk thought, than from any real sense of emotion.

They mounted and rode out through the gate and on across the drawbridge. ‘Which way?' Kalten asked Sparhawk.

‘North,' Sparhawk replied. ‘Let's get clear of this place before Gerrich comes back.'

‘That's supposed to be a number of days.'

‘Let's not take any chances.'

They rode north at a gallop. It was late afternoon by the time they reached the shallow ford where they had first encountered Sir Enmann. Sparhawk reined in and dismounted. ‘Let's consider our options,' he said.